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Winchester Encounter—see plO 
Impression by Jennifer Cook 


British UFO Research Association 



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Vol 5 No 6 March/April 1977 






Council 1976/7 

President 

Geoffrey G Doel, mrcs lrcp dmre 
Vice-presidents 

The Rt Hon Earl of Clancarty 
Leonard G Cramp, ARABS MSIA 
Prof Bryan Winder, bsc ceng fimeche 
Graham F N Knewstub, ceng miere fbis 


Council chairman 
Lionel Beer 


Council members 

Steve Gamble, aimls 

Mrs Anne Harcourt 

Charles F Lockwood, ba, dip ed stud 

Richard Nash 

CAE O’Brien, cbe ba fras frgs fgs 

Norman Oliver, fras 

Tony Pace, fras 

Miss Jenny Randles 

Stephen Smith ma 

Mark Stenhoff, fras, afbis 

Miss Betty Wood 


Advertisements 

Personal column: 2p a word. Display 
rates: whole page £10-00j half page £6-00; 
quarter page £3-00. Outside back cover: 
£12’00; half page £7-00. 

Advertisement copy: 15 Freshwater Court, 
Crawford Street, London WIH IHS 

Cover design: Richard Beet 

Bufora Branches 

Yorkshire: Trevor Whitaker, 8 Central 
Park, Wellhead, Halifax HXl 2BT 

Edinburgh: Peter A Hill, 1 Cambridge 
Gdns, Leith, Edinburgh EH6 5DH. 

Irish: John A Hind, 19 Cairnshill Avenue, 
Belfast BT8 4NR. 

with Member Societies 


Administration Department 

General correspondence: 

Miss Betty Wood, 6 Cairn Avenue, 

London W5. Tel: 01-579 3796 
Membership secretary: 

Mrs Anne Harcourt, “Harkendown,” 

Epping Road, Roydon, Harlow, Essex 

Treasurer: 

Stephen Smith, ma, 5 Arndale Road, 

Sherwood, Nottingham N95 3GT 

Publications Department 

Journal editor: 

Norman Oliver, 95 Taunton Road, 

London SE12 8PA. Tel: 01-852 7653 

Editorial assistants: 

Pauline Grego 
Mrs V Martin 

Publications co-ordinator and distribution: 

Arnold West, 16 Southway, Burgess Hill, 
Sussex RH15 9ST. Tel: 044 46 6738 

Research and Investigations Department 

Research director: 

Tony Pace, Newchapel Observatory, 
Newchapel, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs 

Research co-ordinator: 

Jenny Randles, 23 Sunningdale Drive, 

Warn, Greater Manchester M30 6NJ 
Tel: 061 775 4749 

Research projects officer: 

Charles Lockwood, 5 The Ridgeway, Cyijf' 
Famsfield, Newark, Notts 

National investigations co-ordinator: i s- c ? 
Ken Phillips, 13 Falcon Avenue, ^ ^ ' 
Springfield Est, Milton Keynes, Bucks 
Training officer: 

Trevor Whitaker, 8 Central Park, 

Wellhead, Halifax HXl 2BT 

Overseas liaison officer : 

Bryan Hardey, 

23 Hastings Road, 

Thornton-le-Fylde, Lancs. 

Tel: Cleveleys 74417 


Btffora Journal is published six times a year and is available to members only, or by exchange. 
The British UFO Rese^ch Association does not hold or express corporate views on UFO 
phenomena. Contributions reflect only the views of the editor or the authors. Copy for pub¬ 
lication in the Journal must be sent directly to the editor andnot to any other Bufora officer. Original 
material is copyright to both the contributor and to Bufora. Requests for permission to re¬ 
produce material from Xhv Journal should be addressed to the editor. 






BUFORA JOURNAL 

Volume 5 Number 6 March/April 1977 

Editorial Address : 95 Taunton Road, London SE12 SPA 


Contents 


Vange Delta 

2 

Research and Investigations 
Section 

3 

Points from the Press 

6 

Uforum 

8 

The Winchester Encounters 

10 

Have you read . . . . ? 

18 

Sighting Summaries 

20 

Personal Column 

Hi 


Editorial 

Up, down, around or .... ? 

As an association, Bufora holds no 
corporate views on the UFO enigma: 
its activities are aimed at uncovering 
the truth behind UFO manifestations 
in whatever direction that truth may lie. 

Many members have—and are fully 
entitled to—their own theories and 
ideas on the subject, and these may 
range from the ETH to the Hollow 
Earth theory, via psychic phenomena, 
ultra-terrestrials and all points be¬ 
tween and around. Recently I’ve been 
mulling over the different theories and 
found I couldn’t help but come to the 
conclusion that perhaps hitherto I’d 
given the ETH too much consider¬ 
ation. Mind you. I’ve always held the 
view that no one source can be held 
responsible for all unidentified reports, 
nor am I now dismissing the possibility 
of extra-terrestrial visitations out of 


hand: certainly I think they should 
have a place in our deliberations, but 
I do feel we may well be expending 
rather too much effort in what con¬ 
ceivably could be entirely the wrong 
direction. 

Just about one common factor emerges 
from the examination of sighting re¬ 
ports in general—their diversity. At 
times it almost seems that people are 
vying with one another to claim some¬ 
thing different, and when one comes to 
consider landing, occupant and con¬ 
tact claims, the diversity becomes even 
more apparent. At some time or 
another, you know, we’ve been con¬ 
tacted (or have we?) by beings or 
humanoids from almost all the planets 
in our solar system including some as 
yet undiscovered! Not only that, but 
‘ indigenous inhabitants ’ from all the 
nearer star systems and some of the 
more distant ones too, have put in an 
appearance, plus not a few from stars 
and galaxies we’ve never heard of! 
We’ve been contacted by entities from 
places manifestly that do not exist, for 
example; a ‘ Twin Earth ’ and the 
‘ Galaxy of Gennymedes ’—this latter 
allegedly being situated 12 light-years 
away, which would well and truly place 
it inside our own Milky Way, only a 
celestial ‘ stones-throw ’ from the Sun! 
The odd thing is that reports featuring 
the more unlikely origins not infre¬ 
quently have a greater degree of 
independent confirmation. 

So—unless we dismiss automatically 
each and every reported contact as a 
hoax, where does all this lead? Are 
we asking the right questions ? If not, 
what should we be asking ? Well, 
what do YOU think? 

Norman Oliver. 

1 





Vange Delta 

Many unusual reports have come from 
Essex over the past ten years or more, 
and this one, investigated by Andy 
Collins, is clearly something more 
than the average LITS sighting. 



On 12 December 1976, Mr & Mrs 
Jennings and their two children were 
returning to their home in Vange from 
a children’s party, travelling north, 
when their son caught sight of some 
lights in the sky directly ahead. His 
parents saw them also. The lights 
seemed very low and still and coloured 
red, blue, white and green about 100 
yards away. 


They kept their eyes on the lights until 
they were right underneath them, then 
Mr Jennings stopped the car and they 
all got out. Looking up, they could 
see the dark shape of a delta or triangle 
directly above: the green light was no 
longer visible, but on the left hand side 
of the object there were three large red 
lights spaced quite far apart: on the 
right hand side there was a blue light, 
again large, whilst on the back were 
three white lights set close together. 
All the lights were flashing on and off 
in no set pattern, and the object also 
seemed to have an orange-red haze 
around it. 

The object was ‘ about three houses 
high ’ and perfectly still: the only 
noise to be heard was that of passing 
cars. After about two or three min¬ 
utes the object began to move away 
from overhead point first towards the 
north-west—^as Mr Jennings put it, 
‘ It was as if it had seen us.' It went 
very slowly and gracefully and was lost 
to view over some nearby houses: the 
total duration was about seven or eight 
minutes and no sound at all had been 
heard to come from the object. 

The investigator was impressed with 
the sincerity of the witnesses who were 
genuinely worried and puzzled by 
what they had seen. They were pos¬ 
itive it was no aircraft because of the 
large lights and the faa that it hovered 
and made no sound. Southend air¬ 
port movements confirm that there 
were no aircraft in the area between 
1600 and about 1800 that day: the 
sighting occurred at approx. 1715. 

N.B.—This sighting report arrived after the 
table of sightings in this issue had been completed. 
It mil therefore actually be listed in the table in 
the May I June Journal — Ed. 


2 





Research & Investigations Section 


What goes in—should come out! 

When we receive a report on a UFO 
investigation from the investigator, I 
am sure that you have often wondered 
what happens to it, and it was partly to 
look at this question that the sub¬ 
section on catdoguing and data pro¬ 
cessing was arranged at the Birming¬ 
ham Conference. 

A good deal depends on the classific¬ 
ation of a report under the Bufora 
system, (as outlined in the May/June 
'16 Journal). The majority of reports 
have as much detail on them as possible 
and quite probably relate to an ex¬ 
plicable natural or man-made event. 
These are usually the Class 3 or 4 
reports, although it’s possible some of 
these might be worthy of further 
study. If a report is deemed so 
worthy, as all Class 1 and 2 reports 
automatically are, it then goes through 
the various adviser and consultant 
evaluation teams, and throughout the 
following six months or so, receives 
written reports by experts in various 
fields which may either produce a 
written explanation or leave the case 
unidentified. These reports then go, 
along with all closed reports not eval¬ 
uated, to the research department. 

At the research department, as research 
co-ordinator, I deal with them first. 
My job is to extract the important 
cases (ie: the potential unidentifieds as 
indicated by investigators and evalu¬ 
ators) and ensure (i) that results of any 
further work are added to the report 
summary which will have been sent to 
ihQ Journal-, (ii) possibly write up some 
cases for international circulation via 
Flying Saucer Review, (iii) send periodic 
coded lists to Ufocat, the computer file 
operated by the Center for UFO 
Studies in the USA and (iv) ensure 
that the reports are entered onto 
Bufora’s punch card analysis system. 


The main files then pass to the Re¬ 
search Director for inclusion in the 
data bank. 

There are several different ways in 
which data can be stored. Obviously 
the computer is best, but it’s expensive 
to operate and Bufora only has indirect 
access. Most small organisations, 
local groups, etc., will just put reports 
into a chronological pile. This is fine 
when only a few reports are considered, 
but once we reach the several thousand 
which Bufora has, it is clearly im¬ 
possible to search out any relevant 
data. A medium size batch of in¬ 
formation, such as the 600 or so Nufon 
has, can suffice a solution utilising two 
distinct types of file. One is the card 
index, which files basic data of each 
case in chronological order and give 
reference to the main file. The other 
is what is termed a data-retrieval form 
which includes all relevant material on 
a single-sided form. This can be 
readily photo-copied so that researchers 
can obtain information on particular 
cases from the Nufon files. 

The Bufora system has been devised 
over many years of work, initially by 
Stephen Smith, and is, in our opinion, 
the next best thing to a computer. 
This utilises the punch cards which 
have a binary coded series of holes 
which enable all basic data to be in¬ 
cluded on a card in very simple terms 
(by clipping out appropriate holes in a 
coded list). Extraction of data be¬ 
comes remarkably easy because it’s 
simply a matter of deciding what is 
needed (eg: all green objects), then 
punching through the holes referring 
to this piece of data. In this case all 
green objects will have had these holes 
punched out, and consequently if a 
knitting needle is placed through the 
stack of cards at this point, all those 
continued overleaf 


3 


which are not green will stick, and all 
those which are will fall through be¬ 
cause the holes are punched out. The 
cards do not need to be in any order 
because there are codings for dates, etc. 
and several pieces of data can be 
extracted simply by carrying through 
the operation several times. In 
other words, it is very possible im¬ 
mediately to extract from the cards 
(which will ultimately cover all Bufora 
cases), for example, every object col¬ 
oured green seen in the county of Essex 
on a Wednesday in July, etc. etc. 

Eventually this system will enable 
request for information on reports to 
be answered very quickly, and data 
read-outs will be possible, just as with 
a computer. Obviously they will take 
longer to prepare, but will in no way be 
more restricted than those a computer 
could provide. In fact, it will be a way 
of bringing the processed data back to 
the fingertips of those who provided 
it—the investigators. 

Another method used is the produc¬ 
tion of catalogues. One example of 
this is the Vehicle Interference Cata¬ 
logue Bufora will be publishing in the 
near future. This is a codified listing 
of all cases involving some type of 
interference with a motorised vehicle. 
The collation of all the material into 
one place being an important base for 
research, Bufora is working with Con¬ 
tact and Nufon to prepare a regional 
catalogtie for Northern England which 
will list all reports from all sources 
throughout history. This will be ad¬ 


ded to by various indices, such as 
locational lists of reports, and it is 
hoped it will form the first link in a 
chain of such catalogues covering the 
whole UK, though obviously this will 
need individual help within the regions 
to search out newspaper files, etc. 

I hope all of this shows that Bufora is 
concerned about what happens to your 
material once it is sent in. You are 
not sending in masses of paperwork for 
no reason. You are a vital link in a 
process which will lead ultimately to an 
understanding of the UFO phen¬ 
omenon, and don’t forget all future 
reasearch depends absolutely on the 
quality of the initial report you send in 
to Bufora. 

Data systems 

The work involved in upgrading the 
actual research files is progressing 
smoothly. All cases have been given 
a preliminary classification in four 
evaluatory groups. Red (where a pos¬ 
itive identification is made). Amber 
(where there is insufficient data but 
evidence strongly suggests an identi¬ 
fication), Yellow (again insufficient 
data, but enough unusual parameters 
to suggest that something truly un¬ 
known might be involved), and Green 
(the best cases, with adequate evidence 
of a true unknown). At the present 
moment all Green and Yellow cases are 
being transferred onto the punch card 
system to facilitate rapid research 
capabilities. 

Jenny Randles. 


UK Investigators Agency (Ltd). Enquiries have been received from Bufora 
investigators and others with whom the above-mentioned recently formed in¬ 
vestigation group has been in touch. We would advise those concerned that the 
subject will be debated at the next Council meeting in April when the question of 
Bufora’s future relationship with this body will be discussed. 


AWARENESS —^the Journal of Contact UK. For details write to J B Delair, 
19 Cumnor Road, Wootton, Boar’s Hill, Near Oxford. 


4 








Analysis of UFO photographs and 
films 

I would like to advise members and 
investigators of the correct procedure 
to be employed where photographic 
evidence is supplied to field workers. 

Recently, much of this photo evidence 
has been forwarded to departments, 
factions and individuals not connected 
with the Photographic Analysis & In¬ 
vestigations Dept. (PAID), with the 
result that the evidence was damaged, 
rendering further analysis difficult and/ 
or impossible. 

Should investigators receive photo 
evidence, they must inform either the 
PAID or the NIC as soon as they can, 
the procedure in such a case being as 
shown in the accompanying diagram. 

Remember! A UFO photo can only 
be analysed properly if, and only if, the 
original negative/film is submitted. 

Ken Phillips, NIC. 

Relevant phone numbers: 

NIC.01-452-0520 

PAID: 

John Shaw ..01-223-3388 

BobDigby .01- 902-0582 


Your editor is suffering from increasing doses 
of “ metricitis! ” Distances and measure¬ 
ments from one source may be entirely metric, 
from another entirely in miles, yards and feet, 
whilst in some cases a mixture of both is 
adopted. As the mile is apparently not going 
to ‘ go out of circulation ’ altogether, and as 
most witnesses for some time to come will still 
think in terms of yards, feet and inches, for 
the time being I shall adopt the following 
procedure:— 

Where the measurements quoted are from a 
metric source—Ordnance Survey map or 
similar, I will use the metric system. Where 
wimesses refer to distances these will be given 
in yards, feet, etc. Items quoted from over¬ 
seas publications which include measurements 
will be given exactly as per source.— Ed. 



&ND 


5 














Points from the Press 

The recent Birmingham Conference 
was mentioned in the Birmingham 
Evening Mail of 6 and 8 November. 
More than 140 delegates of research 
organisations attended, including Bir¬ 
mingham’s own UFO Studies Inform¬ 
ation Service, which works in liaison 
with Bufora. Members said their 
organisation works hard on scientific 
facts and UFO study is gaining in 
interest and respectability. 

★ ★ ★ 

From a Swedish newspaper of 17 Nov¬ 
ember comes an account of three boys 
who saw a blinding orange light on the 
Kalix River beach on 15 November. 
It disappeared, reappeared, then shot 
skyward. Two other boys nearby 
corroborated details of the phenomen¬ 
on which left a circle of burnt grass. 

A similar brilliant light was seen on 
the road between Dokkas and Matti- 
vaara in northern Sweden by a motorist 
and her daughter. 

In the north of Finland, a young man 
was badly burned by a ray of light 
from ball of light which he and a 
friend approached when it landed out¬ 
side an industrial area in Uleaborg. 
Translation by Bob Easton. 

★ * * 

The Brisbane Courier-Mail of 24 Sept¬ 
ember reported near panic the previous 
evening when four fighter bombers 
trailed jet fuel at a festival opening. 
The lights were too spectacular and the 
terrified Brisbane public thought they 
were flying saucers! 

★ ★ ★ 

The Yorkshire Evening Post of 16 
November mentions Trevor Whitaker 
of Halifax, Bufora member and secre¬ 
tary of the Yorkshire Branch. He 
explained that the latter i.s one of four 


Valerie Martin. 

Yorkshire and Lancashire research 
groups who are teaming up to compare 
data on recent UFO sightings around 
Huddersfield. 

★ ★ ★ 

In the Brisbane Courier-Mail of 17 
October, Colin Phillips, president of 
Queensland UFO Research Bureau, 
appealed to Queenslanders not to fire 
shots at UFOs after hearing of a 
motorist who had emptied his gun at 
one! A conference in South Aust¬ 
ralia was being held shortly because of 
the continuing number of UFO re¬ 
ports since the 1975 conference in New 
South Wales. 

★ ★ ★ 

According to the American paper. 
National Enquirer of 2 November, a 
team of respected French scientists, 
including a designer of Concorde, an¬ 
nounce they have solved the mystery, 
of UFO propulsion after seven years 
research. The three men have suc¬ 
cessfully tested a tiny model UFO in a 
windtunnel and built a working model 
of a complicated engine utilizing both 
electromagnetic and nuclear energy. 
The French Academy of Sciences has 
published details and two scientists 
discussed their discoveries at sympos¬ 
iums in America. One scientist said, 
‘ within 10 years we'll be able to visit 
other solar systems just as UFOs now 
visit us.’ 

■it if it 

The County Times & Express & 
Gazette of Powys, 27 November, refers 
to a lorry driver with a load of steel 
near the Elan Valley, feeling ‘ scared to 
death ’ when he saw a cigar shaped 
thing belching orange and red flames. 
It was hovering above his vehicle, but 
when he stopped and got out, the object 
was moving away. 


6 




The West Lancashire Evening Gazette 
of 21 October carried an article on 
UFOs, featuring Bufora’s Overseas 
Liaison Officer, Bryan Hartley of 
Thornton. He also holds posts with 
the Northern UFO Network and earlier 
in 1976 founded the Fylde Aerial 
Phenomena and UFO Research Group. 
An impressive collection of books and 
photos on ufology, a constant quest for 
information and short wave radio are 
among the interests of this lively- 
minded dedicated young man, who 
has been confined to a wheelchair 
since a motor cycle accident 10 years 
ago. 

* ★ ★ 

“ UFO puts Shah’s jet fighters out of 
action! ” runs the heaffiine in Blick 
magazine of 22 September. An official 
statement by the Persian Ministry of 
Defence admitted that two Phantom 


Fighters saw a UFO which chased 
them when they closed in upon it, 
paralysing their electronic systems. A 
circular object detached itself from the 
UFO, landed briefly near Tehran, took 
off again and the UFO disappeared. 

★ * ★ 

The Guardian of 19 November, Daily 
Telegraph of 24 November and the 
Bristol Evening Post of 19 November, 
have reports of bumps in the night 
occurring in the South West of Eng¬ 
land. Conflicting statements from 
Bristol University research team who 
have recorded the noises first denied 
they were made by aircraft, then said 
that some booms from Concorde were 
responsible. These had corresponded 
with scheduled flights by British Air¬ 
ways and Air France, but did not 
account for all noises reported from 
Sussex to Cornwall at different times. 


A REPETITION OF fflSTORY? 


In 1923 Hermann Oberth published 
a 100-page book The Rocket into 
Planetary Space at his own expense. 
It was a theoretical study of the 
principles and possibilities of 
rocket ascent. In 1925, as a direct 
result, a group of young enthusiasts 
founded a “ Society for Space 
Travel ” . . . . and, being more of a 
writer than an engineer, Oberth saw 
others putting his ideas into 
practice. 


In 1976 Robert Morison published 
a 112-page book The Vortex Message 
under his own imprint Ascent at the 
expense of The Interplanetary Space 
Travel Research Group. It contains 
a theoretical study of the principles 
and possibilities of vortex levitation 
.... and, being more of a writer than 
an engineer, Morison foresees others 
putting his ideas into practice. 


ASCENT is dealing with all orders direct. 
Price: £1-70 including postage etc. (UK). 

$3 by surface or $4 by air mail (USA). 
Address; 34 Elm Grove, London, N8 9AH 


7 


Uforum 

Dear Mr Oliver, 

I would like to comment on the article 
Controversy by Peter Bottomley in 
Vol 5, No 4 of the Journal. 

Firstly, if, as Peter states, he has seen 
a sample of reports sent in by inves¬ 
tigators and they were poorly compiled, 
then indeed the article should have been 
published: but all too often today, in 
many subjects as well as Ufology, only 
the bad points seem to hit the head¬ 
lines. I don’t know what percentage 
of the reports inspected by Peter were 
poor, but I’m sure there are many re¬ 
ports from Bufora investigators worthy 
of praise. I must confess I fail to 
understand how people capable of 
producing such ‘ reports ’ as described 
are appointed as an investigator in the 
first place; surely that is where the 
solution lies ? Investigators should, 
I feel, be interviewed in every case in 
the first instance by the local RIC for 
general character reference, etc., after 
all, they are representatives of Bufora, 
and are the vital links between the 
witness and any possible subsequent 
research. Secondly, a basic test should 
be implemented to determine literacy, 
eligibility, attitude, etc. A trial period 
could be undertaken, and confirmation 
of position as investigator based on 
receipt of his/her first report. On the 
other hand, some investigators could 
be chosen based entirely on the quality 
of an initial report: perhaps a member, 
trying his hand for the first time as an 
investigator on his own initiative, may 
reveal to the RIC or NIC good 
‘ qualifications ’ at extracting inform¬ 
ation and compiling a subsequent 
report. 

Personally, I was lucky, as I began as a 
‘ self-styled ’ investigator when I 
founded Ufosis. But the experience 
acquired was invaluable when I applied 


for position as a Field Investigator for 
Apro. My application was accepted, 
presumably on the basis of a report I 
sent in soon after my arrival in Canada. 

When I dispatch a report, I am 100% 
sure no information has been left out. 
This is because I have adopted a 
system where I use a ‘ checking-sheet ’ 
compiled in sections relative to partic¬ 
ular aspects of the report, such as: 
The Witness, name, address, etc.: 
The Investigators, name, address, etc.: 
The Sighting, date, time, location, ref¬ 
erence, etc.; Samples included, labelled, 
etc.: Artifacts, Photos included, labelled 
etc.: Signatures —on material where 
required: Copies, photo-copying com¬ 
pleted where required, etc., and I 
always keep a copy of the report until 
receiving acknowledgement of receipt 
of the original. I then have a final 
check to ensure (1) every part of the 
report is in the envelope, (2) envelope 
contains SAE for reply of receipt, (3) 
envelope is addressed correctly ‘ to ’ 
and ‘ from ’. Very elementary pro¬ 
cedure, but it’s all too easy to leave 
things out and it’s the elementary mis¬ 
takes which most often occur. Work¬ 
ing to the book can be a bind, but it 
pays off, as I learnt when helping to 
organize Ufosis. We simply couldn’t 
have sumved had we not carried out a 
methodical procedure in our operations. 

To get back to Bufora’s investigators. 
If the training programme by Trevor 
Whitaker is successful, I would like to 
see investigators graded according to 
their capabilities (based on the training 
course), and/or ‘ specialist ’ knowledge 
the investigator may have—psychology, 
electronics, auto-mechanics, chemistry, 
physics, etc., etc. These factors should 
be borne in mind when a reference to a 
sighting is sent out to an investigator. 

Unbalanced distribution of such ‘ spec- 


8 






ialists ’ could hamper the implement¬ 
ation of this idea due to the distance 
factor, but certainly, I am sure this 
procedure could be executed in a lot of 
cases. Indeed the ‘ tier-system ’ of 
grading investigators could help in 
attempting to match the investigator 
and his capabilities to the work which 
will be involved in the report dis¬ 
patched to the investigator. For ex¬ 
ample, I am not well versed in the 
study of chemistry. This could be a 
big drawback in a ‘ traces ’ case in¬ 
volving samples and the handling of 
same. Also, there could be a deterior¬ 
ation-factor with the samples over a 
period of time. But if my knowledge 
of chemistry was sufficient, I would be 
able to carry out initial analyses. The 
investigators at Ufosis, being small in 
number, were able to discuss each 
case and decide who would interview 
the witness, etc. One policy we had, 
which proved very successful, was 
males to interview male witnesses; 
females to interview female witnesses. 

Gary Lanhatn, 
Manitoba, Canada. 

Gary adds a PS to the effect that (i) 
even investigators well-versed in prac¬ 
ticed field work could learn from Inves¬ 
tigation Manuals and refers to the Mufon 
USA Manual compiled by Raymond 
Fowler {Bufora's is, of course, now 
available], and (2) That a would-be 
investigator should not necessarily be 
barred from investigating because of 
failure in the training programme since 


there are excellent self-taught investig¬ 
ators around. Having interviewed both 
male and female witnesses I am intrigued 
to know how the interview policy Gary 
mentioned was necessarily more successful 
if the reverse wasn’t tried! An AVB 
type case might show it to be so, but these 
are not an everyday occurrence ! — Ed. 


Dear Sir, 

There are certain incidents where the 
UFO has apparently secreted a white 
material which has surprisingly disa¬ 
ppeared on coming into contact with 
the ground. Could this be a by¬ 
product of a process used to propel the 
UFO? I consider this a very inter¬ 
esting point since it could mean that 
other beings have overcome the pol¬ 
lution problem, the by-product just 
disappearing into nowhere. 

The problem here would seem to be 
that such a process would upset the 
law of conservation of matter, ie: 
matter can neither be created nor 
destroyed and the white material would 
certainly appear to be so on coming 
into contact with the ground. I would 
be interested to hear other people’s 
views, especially those with a know¬ 
ledge of ffie history cases. 

Simon Bauman, 
Basingstoke. 

Come to think of it, I can’t recall any 
recent ‘ angel-hair ’ cases. Any offers ? 
—Ed. 


Forthcoming Meetings 

Saturday, 2 April, 1977. 7 p.m. “ UFOs—The Photographic Evidence ” 

{illustrated). 

Saturday, 7 May, 1977. 7 p.m. “ Surveying the Past,” —C A E O’Brien, 

CBE, BA, ERAS, FRGS, FGS. 

Meetings held in the Lecture Theatre at Kensington Central 
Library, Campden Hill Road, London W.8. 


9 



The Winchester Encounters 


As a preamble to this article, it is worth mentioning that at Bufora’s Conference 
m Birmingham, 5-7 November 1976, Bernard Delair, editor of Awareness and 
fortner secretary of Contact UK, spoke on UFO Waves and Their Prediction 
He described 6 year and 10 year cycles, and predicted that the next 6 year wave 
U:his cycle produces more Humanoid cases) could start about December 1976 or 
January 1977. The Winchester encounter occurred on Sunday, 14 November 
so 1 leave it to your judgement as to whether this was too early to fit Bernard’s 
prediction. Before you dismiss the coincidence too lightly, bear in mind that 
this appears to have been the start of a wave of reports in the UK including two 
other close encounters. There have been rumours of activity in Scandinavia 
other parts of Europe including Brittany in France, besides Iran and Turkev’ 
and some of this was continuing in December. Lionel Beer 


Encounter One 

The two witnesses in the Winchester 
case of 14 November were Mr Ted 
Pratt and Mrs Joyce Bowles, who have 
noticeable Wessex accents. Mrs Bow¬ 
les, aged about 42, is an extrovert 
mother of four sons who lives with her 
husband in a semi-detached council 
house on the eastern side of Winchester. 
She works at Winchester Railway 
Station and owns a new white British 
Leyland Mini Clubman Estate, reg¬ 
istered in July 1976. Mr Pratt, bel¬ 
ieved to be about 60, who lives at the 
small hamlet of Nether Wallop, ap¬ 
peared on television wearing glasses. 
He and his wife were visiting the 
Bowles family on the evening in 
question. He is understood to have 
retired for health reasons. 

One of Mrs Bowles’ elder sons was 
visiting his girlfriend in the nearby 
hamlet of Chilcomb. His mother reg¬ 
ularly drives the mile journey to 
collect him, and in fact probably knows 
the road like the back of her hand. 
That Sunday evening there had been a 
touch of frost in the air, which is 
thought to have thawed by the time 
she and Mr Pratt set out. They left 
her house about 8.45 p.m. in her 
Mini Clubman. 


From her home on the east side of 
Winchester, she drove east over a high 
concrete bridge which straddles the 
A33 Winchester by-pass road. A 
straight piece of road, the B3404 leads 
past a school and hospital on the north 
side and a little further on there is a 
cemetery on the south side. A mile 
and a half from the bridge just men¬ 
tioned, there is a major roundabout 
where the B3404 joins the A31 to 
Alton, Famham and eventually Guild¬ 
ford. The roundabout and adjacent 
road are illuminated by a glare of 
orange sodium lights. Mrs Bowles 
drove round the roundabout to come 
back towards Winchester along the 
dual-carriageway of the A31, which 
leads down Magdalen Hill Down. 
After three quarters of a mile the dual¬ 
carriageway ends and it was about this 
point that Mrs Bowles said, “ I saw 
two lights, the first was higher than the 
second, which in turn disappeared be¬ 
hind the scrub (to her left), thus in 
neither case were they high in the air. 
I drew Mr Pratt’s attention to them.” 
She also told us that although they 
were orange they were redder than 
sodium lights. In an independent 
interview with Dr Geoffrey Doel, Mr 
Pratt not only confirmed seeing the 
lights, but described them as a bright 


10 




Scene of the November encounter {the Mini Estate would have been facing the camera on the 

grass verge). 


orange-red object some 40 feet long, 
flying at about 800 feet a quarter of a 
mile away. The lights/object were 
seen in the general direction of the 
lane to Chilcomb and it is supposition 
that this related to what followed. At 
the bottom of the hill, Mrs Bowles 
took the lane for Chilcomb, which 
means that she would have had to 
brake fairly sharply to negotiate the 
hairpin bend in second gear. She 
also flashed her headlights to warn 
traffic coming up the lane. According 
to her description, as the Mini was 
going down the straight piece of lane, 
it shuddered and rattled (as though 
perhaps the ignition had stopped 
firing?) and the steering appeared to 
lock. Both Mrs Bowles and her 
passenger struggled with the wheel, 
but to no avail. On their right was a 
280 yard length of 20-30 feet wide 


grass verge (measured from the sign¬ 
post in the hairpin). This is clearly 
used as a picnic spot—probably by 
courting couples also, and is level with 
the 12 foot lane. Mrs Bowles thought 
the car was carried sideways, lifting 
olf the ground onto the grass, rather 
than skidding off the road. It came to 
rest in the middle of the grass, parallel 
with the road. 

It is interesting to note that Mr Pratt 
gave a much more dramatic account of 
the car leaving the road. He reached 
over to the other side of the steering 
column and switched off the ignition. 
When they looked up they saw a cigar¬ 
shaped object partially illuminated by 
the car’s headlights, an estimated 5 to 
6 yards (15 metres) slightly to the right 
in front of their white mini. 

continued overleaf 
11 


Initially Mrs Bowles appeared reluc¬ 
tant to return to the lane with us and 
agreed eventually on condition that she 
would not have to get out of Arnold 
West’s Volkswagen ‘ caravanette.’ She 
no .doubt felt safety in numbers on 
arriving near dusk, as she joined us on 
the grass verge. It was interesting to 
watch her trying to recall the exact 
position of the car and the object on 
the night of the encounter, and silently 
lent a lot of emphasis to her description. 

While at the site, she said that during 
the encounter she had heard a whisding 
sound. There was a definite whistling 
sound while we were there, but this 
seemed not to make any impact on her, 
so presumably the local starlings or 
other hedgerow birds were not re¬ 
sponsible ! 

We estimated with the use of a tape 
measure, that the object, which she 
described as like a ‘fat Winston Churchill 
cigar ’ would have been about 12 
feet long and perhaps about 5 feet high. 
Since it was dark at the time of the 
incident, she was not sure if she had 
seen the full extent of the object, par¬ 
ticularly as towards the right hand end 
of it was what she described as three 
brightly lit bow-shaped windows. 
During the interview a certain amount 
of play was made on the windows, 
and Mrs Bowles emphasised that they 
were neither oval nor bubble-shaped. 
She told us that Mr Pratt said he had 
only seen one window, and this is a 
point of significant difference in their 
accounts. Behind the window (or 
windows), they saw three figures, 
sitting as though they were sitting in a 
bus, in that they were one behind the 
other with only head and shoulders 
visible. 

The object was just above the ground 
with vapour underneath it. Mrs 
Bowles neatly described the source as 
being like an inverted gas stove jet. 


Mr Pratt told Dr Doel that the object 
was 18" above the ground and sup¬ 
ported by four jets blowing out gasses. 
He also said the cigar was glowing with 
a diffused orange-red light. It is 
possible that a few seconds elapsed 
before they saw a figure emerge out of 
the darkness between the cigar’s right 
hand side and their car, although no 
opening was seen in the object. If the 
light from the window(s) had been 
very bright, the two wimesses could 
have missed seeing a figure coming out 
of the end or perhaps from around the 
other side. The figure, whom I will 
call the MAN, took about 4 or 5 steps 
towards the car walking in a normal 
manner. As the MAN, described by 
Mr Pratt on BBC’s Nationwide TV 
programme as being about 6 foot to 
6 foot 5" in height, reached the driver’s 
door, HE must have turned slightly to 
face towards the dashboard. HE then 
bent down to look in through the, 
driver’s window, and the witnesses 
thought HE probably had his left hand 
on the roof of the car. This might be 
significant in view of what followed. 
The MAN glanced along the dash¬ 
board and the engine suddenly sprang 
to life. At the same time the head¬ 
lights, which were on full beam, shone 
so brightly that they expected them to 
burn out. 

Mrs Bowles said she had been ex¬ 
tremely frightened even before the 
MAN appeared and had buried her 
head in Mr Pratt’s shoulder, besides 
wrapping her legs around his on his 
side of the car. On the other hand, 
according to her, the event gave Mr 
Pratt the power to be very calm, 
despite the fact that he suffered from 
angina. 

What apparently struck Mrs Bowles 
about the MAN were his piercing pink 
eyes, which apparently had no discern¬ 
ible pupils or irises. She was con¬ 
vinced that it had left some kind of 


12 



effect on her eyes, like one might 
expect from looking at the sun. Apart 
from that HE looked very much like 
an ordinary man, having short hair at 
the front, which came down to the 
shoulders at the back and turned up 
slightly. HE had sideboards which 
met in a roughly pointed beard, but no 
moustache. His paleish face, illum¬ 
inated apparently by a combination of 
moonlight and reflected headlights, had 
a fairly pointed nose, normal mouth, 
and apart from the eyes, otherwise 
appeared normal. On the Nationwide 
programme, Mr Pratt described the 
MAN as wearing what resembled a 
boiler suit, with his hair brushed back¬ 
wards over his head, reaching down to 
his shoulders. Mrs Bowles mentioned 
at one point that he had silvery specks 
in his hair. “ His clothing shimmered 
as if being shaken by a wind.” When 
HE bent down to look into the car 
window his ‘ overall ’ ballooned out 
like a cyclist’s cape. His outfit did not 
appear to have buttons, but there was a 
seam running vertically down the left 
side on his chest (ie: his right side). 
She described the colour of the outfit 
as being that of ‘ Bacofoilf a sort of 
dull silver colour. 

As the engine was revving, she prob¬ 
ably had her eyes closed, and eventually 
said “ Look out Ted, HE is going round 
your side! ” However, Mr Pratt 
could see no sign of the being behind 
the car, and by the time they looked 
back the cigar and its occupants had 
completely disappeared. Mr Pratt 
offered to drive the car for the rest of 
the way, but Mrs Bowles said she was 
too frightened for either of them to get 
out. 

When she started the car herself and 
engaged first gear, “ It was like hittir^ 
a barrier.” The car would not move. 
But at the second attempt the car 
started without any trouble, and she 
was able to drive off the grass. So she 


drove on to Chilcomb, a further half 
mile down the lane, to collect her son 
Stephen. What surprised us some¬ 
what, was the fact that she chose to 
drive back along the same lane leading 
out of Chilcomb when there is a per¬ 
fectly good alternative lane which would 
not have lengthened the journey. The 
encounter happened between 8.55 and 
9.00 p.m., and they were back home in 
Winchester by about 9.25 p.m., so 
there is no reason to suspect a time 
delay factor. 

Mrs Bowles told us, “ Mr Pratt phoned 
the BBC on our arrival home, mainly to 
find out if anyone else phoned in.” The 
outcome of this was that they appeared 
together on BBC Southern Television 
the next day, and it was also mentioned 
on the radio in London. On Wed¬ 
nesday, three days later, they appeared 
together on national television at peak 
viewing time, on BBC’s Nationwide 
programme. Before viewers saw them 
Mrs Bates, an attractive long-haired 
lady, told of how she had seen a man 
in a silvery suit bounding along the 
side of the A46 Bath Road the previous 
day. Subsequent information, how¬ 
ever, suggests that this was a hoax per¬ 
petrated by students at Britsol Uni¬ 
versity. 

Mrs Bowles agreed that the figure she 
had seen was similar and did not 
appear to be particularly nervous about 
appearing on television. Mr Pratt 
said he had been startled by what he 
saw. After they had given a few de¬ 
tails of the encounter, a Dr Davis was 
introduced and asked for his opinion. 
Unlike some BBC ‘ instant ’ experts 
on UFOs, he seemed to have some 
knowledge on the subjea. He said 
that although the two could have had a 
genuine experience, it was unlikely to 
have been supernatural, further stating 
that there had been hundreds of sim- 

contimed overleaf 
13 



ilar reports including the malfunction 
of cars from all around the world. 
People responded to a deep-rooted 
mythology, and while there was a gen¬ 
uine stimulus, the causes were natural. 
The witnesses in the regional studio 
were not impressed, and apparently 
would have spoken up if they had 
realised that their line was open. 

Edgar Hatvany, Shirley Bradshaw and 
I visited the lane leading to Chilcomb, 
where the alleged encounter took place, 
on the following Sunday morning. 
Our thanks go to Frank Wood for his 
verbal directions. After visiting Chil¬ 
comb itself, to check on the horses, 
which are apparently locked up at night, 
I examined the grass verge carefully. 
The map reference is E-W 506, N-S 
290 (OS sheet SU52). The verge is on 
the same level as the road and there is 
no kerb. At the edge of the grass is 
scrub and trees growing on the 4 to 8 
foot embankment, which drops sharply 
down to a ploughed field. In places 
the scrub encroaches onto the grass and 
is clearly a popular place for dump¬ 
ing rubbish and unwanted domestic 
appliances. The field showed no un¬ 
usual marks although it would have 
been ploughed prior to the sighting. 
While there, we met two young men 
with their cars parked on the grass. 
One said that he had seen a UFO in 
the sky over Winchester earlier in the 
year, but had forgotten the date. 

There were no obvious ground marks 
apart from car tyres at various places. 
Nor was there any damage to the scrub 
that we could see, and on the other side 
of the lane there was a lot of old man’s 
beard, a white fluffy growth, which 
could have been expected to show up 
burn marks or scorch marks. So far 
as I am concerned there was no physi¬ 
cal evidence whatsoever at the site— 
not even the narrow tyre marks of a 
Mini skidding off the road! Other 
investigators apparently went to the 


other lane leading to Chilcomb, be¬ 
cause Mrs Bowles’ description of the 
local roads (and she agreed) was mis¬ 
leading. Therefore reports of un¬ 
usual findings on the lane near the 
MOD rifle range leading off the A33 
should perhaps be discounted. 

However, there was physical evidence 
of a circumstantial and subjective 
nature, which is difficult to evaluate. 
When we interviewed Mrs Bowles at 
her home, she told us that the right 
side of her face had become blotchy 
the following Monday or Tuesday. 
This was confirmed by a neighbour who 
was present, and separately by Frank 
Wood. The rash had cleared by the 
time we arrived some seven days later, 
but she said that her neck and right 
shoulder had burned for nearly a week. 
I have already mentioned that she 
thought her eyes had been affected in 
some way. She had been feeling 
slightly sick the whole week, and felt 
unable to eat proper meals. In pas¬ 
sing she emphasised that she was not 
pregnant! She agreed that the symp¬ 
toms might have been due to the ex¬ 
citement of the event and appearing on 
television, not to mention various 
reporters and UFO investigators who 
had beaten a trail to her door before 
us! She also said that she felt as if 
she wanted to sleep for a week. 

A further point came to light when 
Frank Wood asked if she had been 
wearing any metal. Astonished, Mrs 
Bowles said that she had taken her 
eternity ring off (worn next to her 
wedding ring) shortly after the event, 
but had not associated it with the 
UFO. The skin of her finger under 
the ring had become red and sore, so 
she put Savlon cream on to soothe the 
pain. As a throwaway line, when we 
were on the point of departure, she 
said she had noticed that a watch that 
had been with her had gone haywire, 
and was no longer any use for time- 


14 


keeping. So far as I know, Mr Pratt 
has not complained of any adverse 
physical effects, but, if anything, felt 
mildly exhilarated. 

The next piece of information will 
probably cause at least a few readers to 
draw emotive conclusions. I learnt 
early on in my investigation, from a 
Winchester reporter, that Mrs Bowles 
had come into the public eye in recent 
years as a result of poltergeist activity 
in her house. At least one of her sons 
would have been of a coincidental age. 
Exorcism had been performed by a 
local rector. She is also known locally 
as a ‘ psychic healer ’ and ‘ natural 
medium.’ When I heard this I hes¬ 
itated before investigating further, but 
realised that impartial investigation 
normally precedes value judgements. 

Changing to the locality for a moment, 
it is worth remarking that Winchester 
has numerous local myths and legends. 
Frank Wood discovered that the en¬ 
counter site lay on a significant ley 
line with 7 or 8 good markers. The 
South of England is littered with 
tumuli, long barrows, ancient settle¬ 
ments and earthworks, so it is possible 
to construct a grid of ley lines there¬ 
abouts, although I cannot say that they 
would all have as many markers! 

Without stretching the imagination too 
far, there are several aspects of the 
story which could be explained in 
mundane terms. It should be noted 
too that there are minor variations in 
the details given by the two witnesses. 
The Leyland Mini has been checked 
over for possible aberrations, but we 
were informed by Mrs Bowles that it 
performed as well, if not better, after 
the incident than before. Frank Wood 
expressed the opinion that the steering 
lock was faulty, but although I and 
Arnold West looked at it personally, 
we could find nothing obviously wrong. 
Taking the case overall, and accepting 


the honesty of the witnesses, one is led 
to the opinion that they had a genuine 
and alarming experience. Mrs Bowles 
even volunteered to swear on the Bible 
that what she said was true. Both 
witnesses are apparently convinced 
they saw something from outer space. 
Mr Pratt thought the cigar-shaped 
object was on a special mission, and 
thinking back to wartime submarines, 
speculated that it would have needed 
support from a ‘ mothership ’. So I 
will conclude by saying that the prob¬ 
ability of a UFO encounter remains 
open. 

copyright—Lionel Beer 
January 1977. 

Lionel Beer, present chairman of Buf ora's 
Executive Council, has been very closely 
associated with Bufora since it ‘ gradu¬ 
ated ’ in 1964 from the former London 
Society Luforo, which he helped to 
found, and in the numerous positions he 
has held, has done much to protect and 
promote Bufora's public image as a scien¬ 
tifically orientated research body — Ed. 

Encounter Two 

On the evening of Thursday, 30 Dec¬ 
ember at about 6.30 p.m., Mrs Bowles 
decided she would fill up the petrol 
tank of her Mini in preparation for an 
early start for work the next morning 
and Mr Pratt—who, with his wife, is a 
very close friend of the Bowles family 
—accompanied her. 

They took the same B3404 eastwards, 
but about one mile from Quarry Road, 
just short of the roundabout previously 
referred to, there is a petrol station on 
the right. Here they filled the tank 
and turned back homewards along the 
way they had come. This is a straight 
unlit part of the road which passes 
close to and above the site of their 
previous encounter down in the valley 

continued overleaf 

15 




on their left. After only a few yards, 
Mr Pratt said, “ Oh look, there's that 
big glow in the sky again.'” Mrs B 
couldn’t see it, but a few yards further 
on she spotted a light going in and out 
of the clouds. She then had to cope 
with a car passing from ahead with 
headlights full on, but a little further on 
she could see the object again, and was 
now aware of a high-pitched whistling 
sound. The car started to rock back¬ 
wards, forwards and sideways and her 
mind became a blank. She then 
became aware of the fact that they were 
no longer in the car, but were standing 
by the car in a room which she took 
to be in a ‘ space-craft.’ Three men 
were standing regarding them, and one 
of these stepped towards them, stand¬ 
ing close beside Mrs B. There was 
another one with a beard and she is 
certain that he was the same individual 
who had approached their Mini at the 
first encounter. 

Another ‘ spaceman ’ had a belt with a 
large scintillating jewel in the front 
which he kept rubbing. He looked 
across at one of the others and said 
what sounded like ‘ Millager ’ or ‘ Mil- 
leeger ’, and they were talking in a 
foreign language. They talked to them 
in broken English, but seemed well 
educated and said that they were 
friendly and intended no harm. One 
of the spacemen asked Mr Pratt to take 
seven steps up to the ‘ room ’, which 
he did. He was then asked, “ What 
do you feel ? ” Mr P replied to the 
effect that it was cooler up one end 
than the other—Mrs B cannot remem¬ 
ber which end was supposed to be 
cooler and which warmer and says there 
is much she is hazy about now and 
cannot remember all the conversation. 
{Did anything happen a la the Hills ?— 
GD). 

The man beside Mrs B pointed over to 
the wall where there were several dia¬ 
grams on transparent material—differ¬ 


ent patterns, lines and triangles (which 
made no sense to her). “ These are 
our fields,” he said. “ Fields ? ” quer¬ 
ied Mr Pratt, evidently thinking of our 
green fields. “ No, no,” came the 
reply, “ OUR fields,” (in broken Eng¬ 
lish). The same man, (who was 
looking Mrs B ‘ up and down ’), said 
to her, “ We are not coming to invade 
you ... ”, and Mrs B replied—rather 
boldly—“ That's what Hitler said,” 
and then feared she had gone too far, 
as he seemed angry and replied, “ You 
have a very strong tongue,” which made 
her feel very nervous. 

On being asked about their clothing, 
she said it was really the same as on 
the first occasion they had seen a 
‘ space visitor ’ . . . . silver boiler suits, 
but fitting up to polo collar at the neck, 
one of them with the belt already men¬ 
tioned, silver boots, and on the wall 
tucked into a loop were a pair of silver 
gauntlets. The material again remind¬ 
ed her of Bacofoil with the shiny side 
out. “ They were ‘ nice looking 
people said Mrs B, “ zoith long sandy 
hair which seemed rather coarser in 
texture than our own.” Their eyes 
appeared fairly normal but glittered 
remarkably: their hands seemed normal 
with four fingers and a thumb on each 
hand. 

Mr P asked, “ Why pick Joyce ? Is it 
anything to do with the car?” They 
couldn’t understand the replies, but 
gathered it was something to do with 
putting a hand on the car. The hand 
of their orginal Chilcomb visitor had 
been placed on the top of their car, 
but no mark or physical alteration or 
radiation had been found thereon. 
They also stated that they would be 
back but did not say when. A lot 
of signs were made to the two wit¬ 
nesses and the ‘ spacemen ’ talked a 
good deal in a foreign tongue, but the 
meaning of this escaped Mrs B and Mr 
P. “ There was,” said Mrs B, “ in the 


16 


middle of the room or spacecraft or 
whatever it was, a large bottle-like 
structure rising up from the floor, wide 
at the bottom and tapering upwards.'' 
This had bands around it, red, black 
and yellow in rings and emblems which 
reminded her of horoscope symbols. 
Mrs B was rather vague as to the size 
of the room, but if Mr P took seven 
paces, it must have been at least 20 
feet long—and the Mini was easily 
accommodated: it was as wide as her 
sitting-room, which was 12 feet. 

Mr Pratt was then held in conversation, 
the details of which Mrs B cannot re¬ 
member and does not think that he can 
either. Everything went hazy, and 
they found themselves seated in the 
Mini with headlights on by a river 
near a road, neither of them being able 
to recognise where they were. After 
driving around for half an hour or so, 
they arrived at Chilworth about ten 
miles away to the south of Winchester. 
Now they knew where they were and 
went home to Quarry Road, arriving 
back at 8.15 p.m. They still don’t 
know where it was that they regained 
their senses. Neither of our witnesses 
have had any physical effects since this 
encounter .... so far. 

Immediately after the incident, Mrs 
Bowles felt very calm, but Mr Pratt 
did seem rather upset and hazy about 
what had happened. We have not 
been able to interview Mr Pratt yet, 
but in view of the need to include an 
account of this second encounter at the 
earliest opportunity I have put this 
together from Mrs Bowles relation of 
the occurrence. 

One further incident worth mentioning 
is that one evening—I understand prior 
to the first encounter in November— 
Mrs B saw, in the half-light on the 
landing at the top of her stairs, a 
shadowy figure which she now thinks 
was like one of the ‘ spacemen.’ This 


figure was pointing out through the 
landing window—in a direction she 
has verified as being towards Chil- 
comb. Also one morning she was 
startled by a rapping on her bedroom 
window and could see a silver gauntlet 
tapping on the glass but no one attached 
to it... . this glove apparently being 
of the same pattern as the gauntlets 
she saw in the ‘ spacecraft.’ 

G G Doel 
25 January 1977. 

Dr ^ Geoff' Doel, MRCS, LRCP, 
DMRE, has also been prominent in 
Luforo and Bufora affairs since 1959, 
having successively been Bufora Vice- 
Chairman, Chairman, Vice-President 
and President. As a colleague he is 
extremely easy to get on with, never 
sparing himself in his efforts to forward 
Bufora's aims. Aside from the above- 
mentioned offices he has acted in a re¬ 
markable number of official capacities. 
Indeed, perhaps only Lionel Beer and 
myself could lay claim to as great an all¬ 
round knowledge and experience of 
Bufora's activities and progress since the 
Association's inauguration in 1964 — Ed. 

Traces Report 

Steve Gamble, Bufora’s new Traces 
Co-ordinator submits the following 
report: 

No traces of a landing were found at the 
site described by Mrs Bowles. Early 
reports that a significant amount of 
radioactivity had been found in the area 
were tracked down as being due to an 
instrument malfunction. Despite there 
being no evidence of landing traces, a 
mobile geological survey unit was sent to 
confirm that these early reports were 
incorrect. 

An extensive survey was made of the 
verge on either side of the road and turn¬ 
off from the by-pass. The search was 


17 



carried out using two highly sensitive 
radiation survey meters. No significant 
amount of radiation zvas detected. 

In addition, pH {the amount of acidity) 
measurements were made at several 
points. The soil was found to be slightly 
more acid than normal. This was due 
to acid released from decaying leaves and 
is a natural phenomenon. Several other 
tests were carried out but did not indicate 
anything out of the ordinary. 

Steve writes: “ . . . . Current projects 
that we are working on include re¬ 
vision of the Traces section of the 


Have you read ... ? 



W. Raymond Drake 


Whilst most readers will be able to 
name quite a number of books about 
UFOs and associated subjects, it oc¬ 
curred to me that details of all the 


Bufora Handbook and an intensive 
course on investigation of Traces cases. 
If you feel that you are able to offer 
help with either of these, please con¬ 
tact me as follows: Mr S J Gamble, 
Anson Primary School, Anson Road, 
London NW2 4AB. All urgent com¬ 
munication should be dealt with as 
instructed in the Bufora contingency 
plan of November 1976. This applies 
to ALL traces. Photographic and Close 
Encounter cases.” 

S' J Gamble, aimls. 


Norman Oliver 

available books by particular authors 
might well be of interest, and in this 
context I am featuring first of all those 
by Raymond Drake. 

Raymond was unfortunate in that his 
first manuscripts—written before or 
about the same time as those of Von 
Daniken—were not published until 
after Von Daniken’s works had attained 
considerable popularity. Whilst, too, 
his books are now deservedly enjoying 
increased attention in this country, 
their first impact was on the overseas 
market, and Raymond is well-known 
in many parts of Europe, having lec¬ 
tured frequently in various countries, 
addressing the 2nd Ancient Astronaut 
Conference in Zurich in 1975 and the 
3rd Conference in Crikvenica, Yugo¬ 
slavia in 1976. 

He is also much in demand as a speaker 
at home and has spoken at our Ken¬ 
sington meetings on several occasions. 
On 23 October last, he was the featured 
speaker at a meeting in the lecture 
theatre of the University of Manchester 
Insitute of Science and Technology 
(UMIST) organised by the Manchester 
UFO Research Association (MUFORA) 


18 


Jenny Randles tells me that although 
she had to miss a large part of Ray¬ 
mond’s Gods and Spacemen talk, she 
was pleasantly surprised with his grasp 
of scientific knowledge and his handling 


of some tricky questions. Having 
heard Raymond speak myself I can 
vouch for this, and also for the touches 
of humour he injects into his talks. 
The following are his published works: 


1964 GODS OR SPACEMEN? Ray Palmer, Amherst, Wisconsin, USA. 
Also 1976 New American Library, New York. 

1968 SPACEMEN IN THE ANCIENT EAST. Neville Spearman, London 
Also paperback 1973. N.A.L. New York and Sphere, London. 

1974 GODS & SPACEMEN IN THE ANCIENT WEST. Sphere, London 
and N.A.L. New York. 

1974 GODS & SPACEMEN IN THE ANCIENT PAST. N.A.L. New York. 

1975 GODS & SPACEMEN THROUGHOUT HISTORY. Neville Spear¬ 

man, London. Henry Regnery, Chicago. In paperback. Sphere, 
London, 1977. 

1976 GODS & SPACEMEN IN GREECE & ROME. Sphere, London. 

N.A.L. New York, 1977. 

1976 GODS & SPACEMEN IN ANCIENT ISRAEL. Sphere, London 

(A revised ANCIENT PAST). 

1977 MESSENGERS FROM THE STARS. Sphere, London (A revised 

GODS OR SPACEMEN?). 

Some of the above are also published abroad by Distriubidora Record, Rio, Brazil 
Albtn Michel, Paris. Vecchi, Paris. Armenia, Milan. MEB, Turin. Edizione 
Medtterranee, Rome. ATE, Barcelona. Taikiri Shobo, Tokio. 


Lecture Summary—Contactee Experiences. Important Note 

I wish to correct any misrepresentation which may have emerged from my review 
of Tim Good’s lecture in the Jan/Feb 1911 Journal. I should make it clear that 
many of the assertions credited to Tim were in fact quotations he was citing as 
examples, and it should NOT be taken that these ideas are accepted by the speaker. 

In a letter to me Tim points out that when he referred to the phenomenon as 
being ‘ a modern day up-date of something which has manifested throughout history,'' 
he was illustrating the modern trend of thought whilst not agreeing with it in this 
context. He also asks it to be noted that it was not he who said that Adamski had 
been hoaxed or President Nixon contacted: again he was quoting others. In case 
the wrong impression be gained, a direct quote from Tim might help serve to 
clarify his feelings. “ . . . . Even if some UFOs do emanate from another space- 
time continuum, it does not preclude the probability that bona-fide extra-ter¬ 
restrials have the technological and mental resources to make our latest scientfiic 
discoveries look primitive, and their own supernatural by comparison ” 

Accept my apologies, Tim. jenny Randles. 


19 



Sighting Summaries 


Code No. 

Date 

Time 

Place 

Report 

Class 

Investigator/ 

Credit 


28.10.75 

0030 

Lisburn, N.I. 

Manoeuvering Lits 

B4c 

Miles Johnston 


28.11.75 

2005 

Belfast, N.I. 

Orange Lits 


Miles Johnston 

75-243 

22.12.75 

1825 

Belfast, N.I. 

Oval red object 

C4c 

M Duffy 

75-247 

5.3.75 

1839 

Maidstone, Kent 

Solid white object 

C3a 

J Castle 

75-248 

15.4.75 

(Midnight) 

0000 

Andersontown, N.I. 

3 gold objects 

C3c 

M Duffy 

75-254 

7.1.75 

1800 

Hainford, Norfolk 

Discoid object 

C3c 

K Williamson 

76-025 

10.2.76 

0625 

Kenley, Surrey 

Elongated object— 
flashing lights 


R COLBOURNE 

76-252 

9.9.76 

0644-0648 

Huntington, York 

Starlike objects 

C4b 

P Hudson 

76-269 

10.7.76 

2200 

*Cipiere, France 

Round object 

C4b 

S Campbell 

76-271 

19.10.76 

1930 

Ilford, Essex 

Five Lits i 

B4c 1 

Bob Easton 

76-272 

11.10.76 

2000-2115 

Dagenham, Essex 

3 manoeuvering lits 

■ 

and 

76-273 

11.10.76 

2130-2145 

Ilford, Essex j 

White lits 

B 

Essex UFO 

76-274 

11.10.76 

2300 

Goodmayes, Essex 

Bright white lits 

B 

Study Group 

76-276 

23.9.76 

2330 

Astley Bridge, Lancs 

Round red object 

B3a 

Digap/Mufora 

76-277 

23.9.76 

2325 

Horwich, Lancs 

Round red object 

B3a 

To 

76-278 

23.9.76 

2345 

Bolton, Lancs 

Orange object 

B3a 

be a 

76-279 

23.9.76 

2310 

Bolton, Lancs 

Red flare 

B3a 

separate 

76-280 

23.9.76 

2315 

Bolton, Lancs 

Sparkling pink object 

B3a 

feature 

76-281 

23.9.76 

2330 

Bolton, Lancs 

Pinky red oval object 

B3a 

in a 

76-282 

23.9.76 

2315 

Bolton, Lancs 

Oval red object 

B3a 

later 

76-283 

23.9.76 

? 

Bolton, Lancs 

Large red light 

B3a 

issue 

76-284 

23.9.76 

2330 

Bolton, Lancs 

Spherical red object 

B3a 


76-286 

14.10.76 

2230 

Winchelsea, Sussex 

Pulsating light 

C4b 

Miss Barefoot 

76-290 

9.7.76 

1225 

Cam Brea, Cornwall 

Bright round oscil¬ 
lating silver object 

C4b 

R Farrow 

76-291 

9.7.76 

1225 

Cam Brea, Cornwall 

Bright round oscil¬ 
lating silver object 

C4b 

R Farrow 

76-292 

9.7.76 

1225 

Cam Brea, Cornwall 

Bright round oscil¬ 
lating silver object 

C4b 

R Farrow 

76-296 

5.11.76 

0737 

S.Benfleet, Essex 

Two dazzling lits 

C4c 

A Collins 

76-300 

13.11.76 

1220 

Milford Haven, 
Pembs 

Inverted cone 

■ 

R JONES-PUGH 

76-301 

13.11.76 

1220 

Milford Haven, 

Pembs 

Inverted cone 

■i 

R JONES-PUGH 

76-305 

23.11.76 

1000 

Milford Haven, 

Pembs 

Metallic rectangular 
object 

C4b 

R JONES-PuGH 

76-306 

23.11.76 

1000 

Milford Haven, 

Pembs 

Metallic rectangular 
object 

C4b 

R JONES-PUGH 

76-307 

23.11.76 

1000 

Milford Haven, 

Pembs 

Metallic rectangular 
object 

C4b 

R JONES-PUGH 


* Witnesses live in Bonnyrigg, Scotland—see “ Points from the Press *’ in JanfFeb Journal. 

20 














































































































































































































76-025 10 February 1976. 06.25 

Kenley Aerodrome, Surrey. 

On leaving his home to do a paper round, the 
witness perceived an elongated object sur¬ 
rounded by a row of flashing lights and 
emitting a beam of light from underneath. 
The witness’s watch had stopped at 06.25, 
although the object was in view for approx¬ 
imately three to four minutes. When he 
arrived home, he was in a severe state of shock 
and was confined to bed for three days. This 
report was investigated by the Ministry of 
Defence. 

Inv. R Colbourne. 

75-237 28 October 1975. 00.30. 

Co Antrim, Northern Ireland. 

Mr Wyllie, an Ulster TV Transmission Con¬ 
troller, vvas driving home from work when he 
saw a bright yellow light moving slowly in a 
south-westerly direction. He stopped his 
car to take a better look and estimated the 
altitude of the light at 2000-3000 feet. It 
then executed a U-turn and disappeared 
behind a factory with no sound audible. 

Irm. Miles Johnston. 


76-286 14 October 1976. 22.30. 

Winchelsea Beach, Sussex. 

The witness. Miss Cree, and a companion, 
were in a car, when a large, pulsating light 
approached them from behind the vehicle. 
The object then moved away over adjacent 
fields towards Hastings. 

Inv. Miss Barefoot. 

75-243 22 December 1975. 18.25. 

Belfast, Northern Ireland. 

The witness. Miss Burns, whilst walking down 
a Belfast street, noticed a large red object 
speeding across the sky in a southerly direc¬ 
tion towards Jupiter. It was oval in shape 
and encased in a red glow. As it passed in 
front of Jupiter, the object suddenly vanished. 

Inv. M Duffy. 


In the last issue, sightings 76, 141/2 were in¬ 
correctly stated to have occurred on 28-30 
March 1976. This should have been 28-30 
June 1976, and I am grateful to Mr B Guiver 
of Wallington for having pointed out the 
error— Ed. 


Personal Column 

SKYWATCH UFO DETECTOR: Suc¬ 
cessful magnetic needle type detector incor¬ 
porating latching circuit and audio alarm, 
battery operated. £9-00. Stamped Add¬ 
ressed Envelope for explanatory literature. 
Malcolm Jay, 102 Nelson Road, Chingford, 
E4 9AS. 

{The use of the word ‘ successful ’ should not be 
taken to mean you will automatically see a 
UFO, but Malcolm's literature DOES quote 
names of purchasers who have — Ed). 

The Kent UFO News Bulletin is a new pub¬ 
lication designed to cover all UFO sightings 
in the high activity area of Kent. Published 
quarterly, subscription is 34p (4 x 8i stamps). 
Overseas 4 international reply coupons. 
Send to Christopher Rolfe, Jnr, 16 St George’s 
Place, Dymchurch Road, Palmarsh, Kent 
CT21 6NE. The publishers would also like 


to contact other ufologists in the area to ensure 
maximum coverage. 

CASSETTE TAPES: Skyquest cassettes now 
available as follows; UFOs & YOU £2-65 
($4 -50) inc P & P; UFOs OVER ENGLAND 
£2-65 (S4-50) inc P & P. Both introductory 
tapes including selected reports—with some 
sound effects. Good background material; 
also ideal for use with talks etc. Permission 
to play extracts readily given. SKY EX¬ 
PLORING—AROUND POLARIS £2-50 
(54-25) inc P & P. General astronomical 
data and instructions on locating circumpolar 
star-groups. Excellent for use on sky watches. 
Mso OUR SOLAR SYSTEM £2-50 (#4-25) 
inc P & P. If ordering two tapes deduct 20p; 
four tapes deduct 50p. Norman Oliver, fras, 
Skyquest {BJ), 95 Taunton Road, London, 
SE12 SPA. Other titles to follow. 


The Bristol-based British Flying Saucer Bureau is now affiliated to the North 
Bristol Institute of Adult Education, and monthly meetings will be held through¬ 
out the year (July and August excepted) at Monks Park School, Gloucester Road 
North, Horfield where they will enjoy the amenities and facilities of the Institute. 
An enrolment fee of is payable on joining. Future lectures include: Spacemen 
and Prehistoric Engineering .7—C Taylor and The UFO Scene in Brazil—G L 
Bird. Further details from British Flying Saucer Bureau, 52 Nevil Road, 
Bishopston, Bristol BS7 9EH. Tel.: 421360. 

in 





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non-members 

Guide to the UFO Phenomenon 

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{all post free) 
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Search for Extra-terrestrial Spacecraft 

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30p 

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30p 

50p 

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Articles of Association 

,01-25 (members only) 

Journals as available 

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(/» some cases, only photocopies of Journals can be supplied, at cost, plus handling and P & P). 
All the above publications are available post free from: 

Arnold West, Bufora Publications, 16 Southway, Burgess Biill, Sussex 
RH15 9ST. 


UFO INVESTIGATION—A HANDBOOK FOR UFO INVESTIGATORS 

Comprehensive 140-page reference work with loose-leaf format. Price (mem¬ 
bers) • 50: (non-members) £3 ■ 50—both include p & p. For overseas orders 
please remit a sterling cheque drawn on UK bank (Postage for Europe 95p; 
USA and Canada ;01-65p airmail: Elsewhere £2 airmail). Cheques payable to 
Bufora Ltd. with orders should be sent to: Miss Jenny Randles, Bufora 
Research Co-ordinator, 23 Sunningdale Drive, Irlam, Greater Man¬ 
chester M30 6NJ. 

STOP PRESS. Currently there seem to be ‘ mini-flaps ’ occurring in various 
parts of the country and one unusual feature is the number of close sightings or 
landings reported by groups of schoolchildren AND taken seriously by their 
headmasters. Three of these have been in Wales and one in England. It is 
hoped to feature at least two of these—one in Pembrokeshire investigated by Mr 
Jones-Pugh and another in Anglesey from the Rhosybol Primary School, whose 
headmaster, Mr Richard Griffiths, I am in correspondence with at the moment, 
in our next issue— Ed. 


THE BRmSH UFO RESEARCH ASSOCIATION 

Bufora Limited (by guarantee). Founded 1964. Registered Office; Stanley Blythen & Co., 
Hazelmont House, Gregory Boulevard, Nottingham. Registered in London: No. 1234924. 
Incorporating the London UFO Research Organisation, fotmded 1959, and the British UFO 
Association, founded 1962. 

Aims ! To encourage and promote unbiased scientific investigation and research into UFO 
phenomena. To collect and disseminate evidence and data relating to UFOs. To co-ordinate 
UFO research on a nationwide scale and to co-operate with people and organisations engaged on 
similar research in all parts of the World. 

Membership : The annual subscription is £5 • 00, $10 in the USA and Canada. Membership 
is open to all who support the aims of the Association and whose application is approved by the 
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